Unibroue 17

Formerly brewed at Unibroue (Sapporo)
Style: Belgian Strong Ale
Chambly, Canada

Pours a foggy brown with a nice off white head. Smells of grapes, pears, and berries. Little carbonation at first as the fruits hit your palate then it changes over to bittersweet chocolate. Velvety smooth finish.

Bottle. Pours a slightly hazy dark amber with a large long lasting light tan head that leaves good lacing. Aroma of bananas, cinnamon, bubblegum, dark fruit, and sweet caramel. Taste is banana, sweet caramel, dark fruits, and spicy yeast. Medium mouthfeel with a mild amount of bitternessmoderate to strong amount of carbonation, and well hidden alcohol. Very good.

Pours a slightly hazy dark maroon amber, with a foamy well retained light tan head. Smells of dark fruits, lots of banana, candy sugar, sweet cinnamon, and that typical Unibroue yeast. The flavor was pretty sweet, lots of that cinnamon character comes through creating an almost root beer-like flavor. Very interesting. A little heavy on the carbonation like most of their offerings. Some nice dark fruits balance out the pretty heavy sweetness. Another solid offering.

Bottle courtesy Presario. Shared with Lee. Muddy dark brown pour with a thick tan head and lots of sediment. Dark fruit (fig, raisin, etc...) orange peel, malty and yeasty aroma. Thick malty taste with hints of orange peel, raisins, yeasty thick. Really nice and smooth, a great beer to share.

Pours a dirty, murky brown with creamy off white head. Nose of dark fruits, cinnamon, toffee, cooked vegetables and wood. There is so much happening in this aroma...very nice. Palate is big rich and creamy with fizzy carb all the way through. Fruity tartness with toffee, chocolate, brown sugar...again, lots going on.

What an odd bear. Nose is banana and clove with some toffee and a bit of chocolate. Somewhat like a weizenbock. POurs a reddish brown color with a big creamy off white head. Taste is sweet and spicy with dark malt and a bit of metal. Mouthfeel is pretty nice and at 10% this beer goes down easy.

Dark brown and opaque with chestnut accents. The head foams up then falls to a frothy 1cm. Complex aroma of plum, cinnamon, cherry, apple, that thick Indonesian soy sauce. There’s almost a canned tomato richness of malt...lots of toffee...and a slightly woody alcohol note like a light rye whiskey. Just a stack of aromas layered, at once distinct but at the same time stuck together like a gooey baklava.

The flavour has a rich, deep fruitiness that melds brilliantly with toffeeish, almost oxidized malts. There’s almost a sherry vinegar taste to this, but without the acidity. Chocolate nuances come through with rum-soaked bread pudding. A firm and slightly hot alcohol note carves through the finish, not clean like usual but like a dull machete through jungle. All the while, more layers are revealed, like a little gooseberry tartness and some brown sugar. A fun beer showing a degree of style and nuance I haven’t seen from Unibroue in years, and yet still feeling like Unibroue beer. Spritziness makes for a finish that’s a somewhat weak counterpart to the crazy fun the rest of the way through this beer.

Brown with big creamy head. Nice fruity spicy taste with hints of oak. Well worth the money.